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Hate beget hate: Immigrants have a right to citizenship

The concept of citizenship is a relatively new contraption in the annals of human history. We had family, we had communities, we had tribes, and overtime we developed states. The original concept of citizenship was an extension of the concept of family. Communities were built on families, everyone was related by blood. With wars and migration came the concept of state based citizenship. A conquering group define a boundary, and people where either granted access or not. Citizenship was created as a tool of inclusion. Allowing people with no family connection a construct for induction into a community. As conquering people grew the size of their territories, they introduced a tool for membership into their elite categories by inducting desirable from the conquered groups. Their tool of choice was citizenship. Empires granted citizenship to conquered people, reshaping the concept again. Today, citizenship is mostly defined within the confines of nation states, although that is increasing...
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All black Americans are African Americans

There's a debate, seemingly exacerbated by the current BLM protests about weather African Americans or Blacks is the right term, or who qualifies. The term African American was coined around the time of civil rights movement to soften the adjective blacks at a time many have to to associate both the word negro and the word black with something bad. The most dark toned peoples of the world are of African Heritage, just like a large number of pale skinned people with long faces are of Caucasian origin. The hyphenated ethno-Americano is an age old expression that originated with the increasing assimilation of various peoples from the different nation states in Europe and Asia. Italian Americans, Irish Americans, Chinese American, etc are just a few examples. None of these ethno-Americans are subdivided into some special abstractions to please the sensibilities of some exclusionists whose only goal is to find a dividing line. Black people have a tendency of self-division, and it has al...
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A better world

We are all god's children. Created or evolved, we dot the face of our little geoidal planet that we call earth. In various outer hues and shapes, expressing our differing timelines. We populate the surface of the earth in a broad spectrum of physiology, biology, and sexuality. Like a garden, full of various hues and scents, our differences make the garden bright, elegant and beautiful. One color and scent is great but boorish. Variety explodes our sense of beauty, titillates our being, and oh my it brings down the glory of the heavens into our heart.  Variety is the essence of life. Our variousness is the beauty of our life. Thank God we are each different.
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All I want is fairness.

Diversity is touted the world over as some kind of panacea for a core societal malaise of discrimination against a group. The discriminating group is usually the one in power, but need not be the majority in that society. In many countries, certain sub groups are completely or partially excluded from power, and their economic growth opportunities tamed. In the United States and much of the western world, the parties most discriminated against are blacks. Over the last 50 years, there's has been some efforts to right this wrong. A wrong that suppresses the opportunities available to black people in all aspects of life. One of the key tool policy makers always turn to is "diversity" Diversity as described is a tool used to ensure representation of all groups at different levels of society's socioeconomic strata. The problem with diversity though is that it gives the impression that black people are being propped up, even if they are not deserving of the opportunities. T...
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A world without borders

Nationality, ethnicity, race -- all are contraptions by people, those whose primary intention is the control of others, often with a goal of self aggrandizement and enrichment. It is founded on the simple principle of divide and conqure.
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Tragedy at another place of worship

Many year ago, some will say aeons, long before we settled on labels that helps nothing but create lines of division, when a person takes the life of another, we call it murder. When a person, takes up arm and goes on rampage of violence, and in the process takes the lives of many, we don't struggle with what to call them or what they have done. We know who they are and understand what they have done. We may not have clarity about their reasoning or state of mind. But their actions are clear. In civil society, we call murder, murder and a murderer is a criminal.
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The true risk of single payer health care

The US healthcare debate is both facsinating and frustrating. Facsinating to a political or economic junkie who gets to hear so many differnt ideas about how to pay for, manage and deliver affordable yet high quality healthcare services to a growing population of three hundred million scattered across fifty plus jusrisdictions with diverse geographical and social needs. Fitting all the disparate interests and needs into a single solution seems at best a fools errand.
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